Justice panel chief rejects calls to inhibit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

REP. Simeon Datumanong, chairman of the House justice committee, refused to yield yesterday after being besieged with calls that he inhibit himself from presiding over the impeachment proceedings on the grounds of his alleged bias for President Arroyo.

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez was the first to ask Datumanong to recuse himself from the hearings because he had allegedly "prejudged" the complaint when he told ANC cable channel in a taped interview aired last Thursday that all the impeachment complaints filed against the President should be treated separately in the light of the one-year ban.

Datumanong denied saying what Golez claimed he said. He also asked Golez to produce the tape of the interview.

Golez said he has a taped copy and transcript of the interview.

Datumanong left the decision on whether he should inhibit himself to the committee members, saying that he has been "very careful" in dealing with the three impeachment complaints.

"The chair would like to state that first, he’s not inhibiting himself, and second, that this is a political position which has been directed (to him) by the House in the plenary," he said.

Golez cited his own decision to relinquish the chairmanship of the committee on national defense, one of the five panels investigating the "Hello Garci" recordings, after the majority called attention to his bias against the President.

Rep. Clavel Martinez (Lakas, Cebu) reminded Datumanong that then House justice committee chair Pacifico Fajardo of Nueva Ecija inhibited himself from presiding over the deliberations on the impeachment case against President Estrada because he (Fajardo) was a relative of then Vice President Gloria Arroyo who stood to benefit if Estrada was ousted.

Rep. Antonio Serapio (NPC, Valenzuela) said since the rules of court are "supplementary" to the proceedings, Datumanong’s position is like that of a judge "so it won’t look good when he’s biased."

Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio (NPC, South Cotabato) moved that they defer the discussions on Datumanong’s bias so that they could proceed with the determination of form but her colleagues would not be dissuaded.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo asked Datumanong why he had included in the agenda the President’s motion to strike out supplemental and the amended complaints and leave the Oliver Lozano complaint standing alone as the sole complaint against Arroyo.

Aside from Lozano’s main complaint and the supplements prepared by the opposition, lawyer Jose Lopez has also filed another impeachment case against Arroyo.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Malacañang spokesman on the impeachment issue, said Lozano’s impeachment complaint is the valid case if the one-year ban on the filing impeachment complaint is taken into account.

Macalintal said amending an impeachment complaint would be a circumvention of the constitutional provision that prohibits double impeachment and would result in a never-ending string of changes.

He said the House of Representatives should look at Lozano’s complaint, which was filed by a private citizen and endorsed by a congressman. He said a separate complaint filed by a congressman cannot piggyback on a private citizen’s complaint.

He said Lozano could not withdraw his complaint because it would result in a dismissal. If that happens, he said there could be no more impeachment complaints against the President until after a year.

In the first hearing last Wednesday, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman raised seven "prejudicial" questions on which complaint should be considered. The inclusion of this by Datumanong in yesterday’s agenda was questioned by Ocampo and Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, spokesman of the impeachment team.

Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico also asked why Lagman was even discussing the plan of Alagad party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta to ask the Supreme Court to rule on which of the three complaints should be considered as the first when it was not even in the agenda.

This prompted Datumanong to divide the panel on what should be considered first – the determination of form and substance based on the rules, or Lagman’s prejudicial questions.

San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, head of the impeachment team, said the impeachment rules clearly state that the committee should first determine the complaint’s form and substance.

Zamora also maintained that the filing of a supplemental complaint to a complaint already filed is not counted as a separate impeachment complaint.

"The filing of a complaint alone is not equivalent to initiation… only when it is endorsed to the committee of justice, (that’s when it) triggers the initiation," he said.

Zamora asked Datumanong to allow the impeachment team’s case to be heard to put an end to the credibility crisis hunding Arroyo.

"This gives her her day in court and if she survives the stronger complaint, she can finally put this crisis behind her…This is what we and the people of Philippines and, I suspect, the President wants… to allow her a chance to establish her innocence or alternatively her guilt. This is the closure that we all want. Only then can we move ahead, move forward," Zamora said.

Minority leader Francis Escudero, who said in a statement that it is now clear that Arroyo’s allies in the House would not allow the impeachment process to push through, said in an interview that they would have no choice but to wait until next year to file their own impeachment complaint or to go along with the Lozano complaint if the majority decides to throw out their amended complaint.

"Kung pinalalabas nila na sampu ang impeachment complaint, baka sampung taon ring magkaroon ng hearings kung hindi sila makikinig sa aming kahilingan. Kawawa naman ang bansa," he said.

He added, however, he is inclined to give House Speaker Jose de Venecia the benefit of the doubt when the latter said the next impeachment hearing would go smoothly.

He also said he would like to think that Datumanong would decide on the merits of the case before him and not on technicalities.

Cayetano said that starting today, the impeachment team and other pro-impeachment lawmakers will show material evidence to the media that would prove their charges against President Arroyo.

Macalintal scoffed at this. "Para naman silang mga bata. Parang laro na kapag natalo ay pupunta sa mga magulang at iiyak…Kaya nga sila inihalal doon ay para ipaglaban ang kanilang karapatan at kung sakaling sila ay matalo doon sa isang lugar ay ini-expect ng mga tao na tatanggapin natin iyan ‘pagkat iyan ay bahagi ng proseso," he said.

Also yesterday, several members of the minority bloc filed House Resolution No. 910 urging President Arroyo to support the voluntary authentication of the tape which contains an audio recording of her alleged conversation with poll Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

The lawmakers said "a politically neutral and acceptable analysis (of the tape) is in the country’s best interest."

Some 600 students from different schools in the University Belt held a Youth March along Morayta street to press calls for President Arroyo to resign.

The march was preceded by a mass walkout of student-members of militant groups at the Far Eastern University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas and Adamson University, spearheaded by the Youth Demanding the Removal of Arroyo (Youth-Dare) and the National Union of Students of the Philippines.

Youth-Dare spokesman Raymond Palatino said the protest and walkout are just the beginning of a series of activities that will dramatize their call for the President’s resignation. He said information booths would be set up in every university in Metro Manila to monitor and provide their fellow students weekly updates on the progress of the impeachment trial. – Wendell Vigilia, Regina Bengco and Ashzel Hachero